Departments

Leda Popoviq is a Michigan interior designer who’s originally from Albania, a small Balkan country in Southeastern Europe with deep roots dating back to around 1225 B.C. Its people are derived from an ancient tribe called the Illyrians. The name Albania was the evolution of old phrases meaning “Land of the Eagles” and “Children of the Eagles.” Albania’s flag is red with a two-headed eagle in the center.

Longtime entrepreneur Arlene Rivera, 55, is a has been doing hair for three decades. She operated salons in Puerto Rico before relocating to the Rocky Mountains and is a self-proclaimed “hair doctor” who believes that understanding curly and wavy hair is about more than simply knowing an individual’s ethnicity.

People with curls and locs have long endured inadvertent (and sometimes overt) microaggressions. Increasingly, however, natural hair in all its forms is all the rage.­­

It began as an idea to make a bath and body line using the highest-quality, purest, natural ingredients, and then, lovingly craft each item by hand in small batches. More than 20 years later, Mountainary founder Karen Daly Swan’s central California beauty business is still going strong.

The Lovely Loba is a Utah-based company that creates unique, innovative, organic and eco-friendly lotion balls specially formulated to soothe even the most sensitive skin. According to creator Lindsey Christiansen, these nourishing spheres use seed butters and oils, herbs, plant and root powders, and essential oils that work harmoniously with skin, body and mind.

Social scholars consider food to be a cultural pillar, in part because it is idiocentric to societies worldwide. Food has been used to mark countries and peoples for generations. It follows, that in Zhaojialou, an ancient water town in Shanghai, China, local cuisine takes top billing among the regional treasures for travelers to explore.

For every ambitious female, there is an unspoken truth behind her path, empowerment, career and successes. What the outside world gets to see from the surface, is just part of the joy, sweat and tears.

Culture brings people together in shared values, practices and behaviors.